Lite-On iHAS424-08 24x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Optiarc's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 24x, the iHAS424 uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 10x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The iHAS424 also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds.  In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media, the iHAS424 is fast. In fact, it turned in some of the fastest times we've seen, beating even the drive from Optiarc by a few seconds. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, the iHAS424 wasn't nearly as fast as the other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the iHAS424, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below. For these tests, SmartWrite and OverSpeed were left disabled.

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The iHAS422's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media I tested. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. For whatever reason though, there were some readability issues with Sony's 16x DVD+R media. If you look at the transfer rate graph, you can see that the DW1640 wasn't able to read these discs back at full speed.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the iHAS424's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The iHAS424 had no problems holding its own when reading and writing to DVD-RAM media. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as the other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the iHAS424, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, Memorex and Moser Baer. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While Lite-On's new drive is capable of writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 12x, its speeds were limited to 8x with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs. As a result, the iHAS424 took nearly 19 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good two minutes slower than the iHAS422 and more than four minutes slower than the drives from Optiarc and Samsung. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

Performance Revisited:

Like Lite-On's previous "Super AllWrite" drives, the iHAS424 performed fairly well throughout most of our tests.  While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW and DVD±R DL discs, it turned in some very impressive times with DVD±R media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the iHAS424 either. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at 12x.

The iHAS424 also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds as high as 48x and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, Lite-On's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the iHAS424 turned in some respectable times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the Lite-On iHAS424 gets a solid 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.